Barker, Thomas

Arriving in Sydney as an orphaned apprentice, Thomas Barker forged a life as a highly successful self-made man, testament to the opportunities available to men of all classes and backgrounds in the fledgling colony.

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Thomas Barker 1873

Camperdown Cemetery

Private cemetery established in 1849 that remained the main burial ground for the Church of England until the opening of Rookwood in 1868. St Stephen's Anglican church was built in the middle of it in the early 1870s. All but 4 acres of the cemetery were resumed in 1948 to become the Camperdown Memorial Rest Park.

Employee

Dickson, John

Member

New South Wales Legislative Council

Upper house of the New South Wales Parliament, which started as an appointed council of advisers to the Governor and has gradually become more diverse and democratic. Since the introduction of responsible government and the Legislative Assembly, the Council has served as a house of review.

Barker's Windmill

Barker's steam mill

Steam mill for flour at the corner of Sussex and Bathurst Streets bought by Thomas Barker in 1827. It was operated by his brother James Barker in partnership with Ambrose Hallen for a period in the 1830s and 1840s before being converted to a textile mill and run again by Thomas Barker.

Barker, James

Barker, Thomas

Arriving in Sydney as an orphaned apprentice, Thomas Barker forged a life as a highly successful self-made man, testament to the opportunities available to men of all classes and backgrounds in the fledgling colony.

Vincent, Alison

Alison Vincent is a local historian

Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts

Founded in 1833 on the model of Scottish Mechanics' Institutes, the SMSA sought to provide further education for working men through lectures, classes and a library. Many of Sydney's foremost intellectuals, inventors and innovators were associated with it, and it influenced the development of both the University of Sydney and technical education in New South Wales. It still provides a library and lectures to Sydneysiders in 2009.

Oran Park

Dharawal country south west of Sydney that was taken and granted to Europeans who established country estates. Later development included a golf club and racing circuit. In the twenty-first century, suburban development has overtaken the area.

Darlinghurst

Used by its traditional owners, the Gadigal people, well into the 1840s, Darlinghurst was a quarry and windmill site before it became popular for the fine villas of the colony's well-to-do, in the 1830s. Subsequent booms and busts raised and lowered the suburb's fortunes, creating the mix of poor and posh, criminal and respectable that have made Darlinghurst one of Sydney's most interesting localities.

Kings Cross

Kings Cross exists in Sydney's imagination as much as it does in any physical form, and pinning down its geographical boundaries is difficult. It has loomed large in Sydney's culture since the first houses were built nearby in the 1830s, and continues to attract tourists and Sydneysiders alike.

Russell, Peter Nicol

Engineer and businessman Peter Nicol Russell was a force in manufacturing, importing and sales of all kinds of metal work and engineering supplies, providing components for many large projects in nineteenth-century Sydney. Although he retired to Britain, he endowed the School of Engineering at the University of Sydney, to help it produce a new generation of engineers.

Darling Point

Darling Point, a suburb on the eastern side of Sydney Harbour, was part of the larger territory of the Cadigal clan of the Eora people. With the arrival of road access in the 1830s it was named Mrs Darling's Point, after Eliza Darling, wife of then governor of NSW, Ralph Darling. It has rich history and contains many substantial heritage properties.

Delamere Estate

Delamere was a cottage on the Delamere Estate, which was a subdivision created in Darling Point in 1840. Other properties on the former Delamere Estate include Swifts, Queenscliff, Goomerah, Callooa and Cleveland.

Glenhurst

Glenhurst was built on the Glenhurst Estate in Darling Point. It was demolished in 1959 or 1960 and replaced by Glenhurst Gardens apartment building.

Lindesay and Carthona

Lindesay, built between 1834 and 1836 for Colonial Treasure Campbell Drummond Riddell, is the oldest surviving residence in Darling Point. It was the home of Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell in 1841 while he built Carthona. The houses have since passed through the hands of a number of notable Darling Point residents and although the grounds of both have been subdivided, remain significant elements of the harbourside landscape.

Windmills of Sydney

In the late eighteenth century, and well into the nineteenth century, the tallest structures around Sydney Cove were windmills. They left few physical remains, yet their presence left a lasting legacy in early colonial landscape art and the minds and hearts of many contemporaries.

Sydney Flour Mills before 1850

Wheat was a staple European food and the British brought it to Australia in 1788 expecting it be the basis of their diet. Before it could be consumed, however, the grain needed to be ground into flour, so flour milling became an immediate and necessary secondary industry in the colony.